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Hi all, I'm new here as a poster (been lurking for years) but thought It time to register and post my version of the Hasbro blaster...

The 'off the shelf' toy is actually pretty good considering it's meant for kids..but well..we all know that Star Wars kids are usually in thier mid 30's. Not exactly screen accurate but I'm not gonna cry myself to sleep over two inches of plastic that's missing from the 'proper' version...boohooooo.....

The Toy comes up a little bit short-scale, To better fit into 8 year old bounty hunter's mitts no doubt. But I'm no 8 year old (at least not physically..although that's also debatable) so it's onto the bench and under the knife for this baby.

I reasoned firstly that the least sculpture heavy way to progress would be to add some inchage to the shoulder stock and secondly that the handgrip could be more comfortable for my hamfisted farmers digits.

First and easiest by far (bar almost slicing the end of my thumb off with the scalpel) was removing the handgrip from a waterpistol from my box of 'bits'

as you can see from the test fitting photo below it adds the necessary inch or so required for a comfortable grip.

Before...

After...

Just needs a bit more filler to attach seamlessly and we're good to go.
Next, the shoulder stock...

So after deciding with the help of a photoshop mockup where to cut...I cut the child sized stock into three parts.

Then using a supremely dodgy corrugated cardboard filler and some jiggery pokery (advanced technical term) I attached it all together to extend the stock by approximately 3 inches or so

aaah..much better...

lastly, I began to fill out the gaps with Fimo airdry sculpting clay. Leaving me with the below state of affairs. Should be ready to sand flush in 24 hours.

I've also filled in all the screw holes that reveal it as a toy and will now await the drying of the filler clay before moving to stage 2...sanding and primer undercoat!

The next bit is, for me tho coolest and the easiest part!

How cool is this?....

still a LOT of work to do tho! I'm not convinced with the stock..sure it's longer but it has a bit of a wierd 'flare' to it so I'm keeping an eye out for a cheap/affordable wooden/plastic rifle stock perhaps from an airsoft or air rifle.

It's fimo air dry sculpting clay, super lightweight and easy to use. It worked great on the handgrips but on the stock, not so good. it tends to shrink a little bit on drying and has left gaps on such a large expanse...we'll see if maybe some modeling filler can bridge the gaps or whether I have to redesign the whole part.

extending the pistol grip was a great idea, every man and his dog has bought the hasbro blaster and sprayed it up (myself included) but ur the first to my knowledge to add a new pistol grip. I look forward to seeing the finished article.

Oh, and I'd recommend taking out that piece of cardboard and replacing it with plastic, I have a feeling that the cardboard would just give and the stock would break

OH I didn't mention before - Inside the cardboard and running the length of the stock are two steel rods that's why it's firm but bendy - the rods make a nice firm stock, but the connection to the handgrip is still floppy Hasbro plastics

primered and undercoated (metallic auto-paint) the front half, I'm leaving the stock as is for now..you'll see why in a minute

the add-ons and fill-ins are nicely vanished with a lick of paint...

then whilst I was painting and despairing about the stock it hit me, why not make a template out of plasticard to cover AND strengthen the stock? So I scanned the blaster and photoshopped up a rough template to cut out...

Then using trusty superglue attached the cut out plasticard cover...it's a little rough but I'm thinking with some sanding and a bit of filler it could potentially work nicely...

I'm just waiting now for the glue to set before attacking with some heavy duty sandpaper to round off/blend it in. It's only one side so far as I want to see how it worls out before going the whole hog.

aaaah the learning curve!

***EDIT***

So, glued, sanded and primed...priming has highlighted some areas for a little filler/attention but overall it works!! hooray for desperate measures!

This Project is now in it's closing stages, also the most critical one, so I'm gonna take a day or two to research the proper techiques for weathering to give it a dirty, scuffed up, rusty, battered old weapon of intergalactic death type finish.

After the genius that was plasticard, I filled and sanded the last niggly bits and proceeded to the undercoat stage...

It then occured to me that the stock greeblies were now looking too 'buried' so again, turning to my old friend plasticard, I cut out two frames to sit on top of and around the rear greeblies and bring them back into play, with a more raised feel...

When the undercoat and topcoat have been applied it looks way better than previously...

so now, here's how she looks as of now, this is pre-weathering so it's new and shiny looking. But that's soon to change muwhahahaha (evil bounty hunter style laugh). The grey is actually much much darker than it appears in the photographs. But that's mobile phone photography for you.

It may not be perfect for those of you out there that can only live with the exact replica of the movie version, but it certainly is keeping my inner bounty hunter happy. once the weathering is done it's gonna be pride of place in the Baronial sci-fi movie museum.

In the meantime, here's how it looks to a bounty hunter when he sights his prey. In this case Aitor the scourge of the spaceways (and food bowls everywhere)

The weathering was acheived with some 'light rust' pigment powder mixed with water and a dash of rust coloured enamel paint, then washed over liberally in 3 or 4 coats. Then when that's dry just some good old fashioned dry brushing/highlights with a silver enamel paint.

thanks for the comments!!!!

Now all I need is a helmet, some boots, armour, backpack, gaunlets, jumpsuit........................